Instagram starts allowing users to flag misinformation

Expanding its fact-checking programme, Facebook has started allowing Instagram users to flag false content on the photo-and video-sharing platform.

"I'm proud that, starting today, people can let us know if they see posts on Instagram they believe may be false. There's still more to do to stop the spread of misinformation, more to come," Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, said in a tweet on Thursday.

According to a report in Poynter.org, while the roll out of the feature has started in the US, it should be available for all international users in about two weeks.

Fact checkers will review the posts once users flag content as false.

But even if fact checkers flag those content as false, the posts would not be deleted from the platform, said the report.

Such posts will be downplayed on "explore" and "hashtag" pages, Stephanie Otway, an Instagram spokesperson, was quoted as saying.

To flag false misinformation, users will have to click the three-dot menu at the upper right corner of an Instagram post, and then select "it's inappropriate" and "false information."

Instagram will use those flags to get a better understanding of misinformation on the platform and to train its Artificial Intelligence to detect false content, Engadget reported.